Be fundamentally different, not incrementally better | Jag Duggal (Nubank, Facebook, Google, Quantcast‪)‬ Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Jag Duggal is chief product officer at Nubank, a decacorn neobank founded in Brazil. It’s valued at over $30 billion, is bigger than Coinbase, Robinhood, Affirm, and SoFi combined, has 100 million customers (more than Bank of America!) while only operating in three countries in Latin America, and 80% to 90% of its growth comes through word of mouth. Prior to Nubank, Jag was a director of product management at Facebook, a senior vice president at Quantcast, and a product leader at Google. In our conversation, we discuss:
• How Nubank builds a fanatical user base
• Tactics for driving word-of-mouth growth
• Measuring customer love through the Sean Ellis score
• The importance of strategic clarity
• The role of category design in creating successful products
• Why companies should strive to be “fundamentally different,” not “incrementally better”
• Nubank’s vision for an AI-powered banking future
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Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/be-fundamentally-different-jag-duggal
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Where to find Jag Duggal:
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jagduggal/
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Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
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In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Jag’s background
(04:34) Nubank’s remarkable achievements
(06:01) Nubank’s product development process
(11:23) Nubank’s values
(12:16) Building products people love fanatically
(15:21) The Sean Ellis score
(21:27) An example project using the Sean Ellis score
(25:07) Picking up the phone and calling customers
(28:20) The importance of starting small and iterating
(30:42) Pushing back effectively
(34:10) Uncovering pain points through customer research
(37:53) An example of setting a clear hypothesis
(42:01) Developing a strategy
(52:16) “Be fundamentally different, not incrementally better”
(53:10) Category design
(57:37) Nubank’s founding story and goals for the future
(01:00:46) Advice for adding new product lines
(01:03:46) The future of fintech and banking
(01:09:23) AI corner
(01:12:34) Failure corner
(01:20:24) Key takeaways
(01:22:11) Lightning round
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Referenced:
• Nubank: https://nubank.com.br/en/
• Coinbase: https://www.coinbase.com/
• Robinhood: https://www.robinhood.com/
• SoFi: https://www.sofi.com/
• Affirm: https://www.affirm.com/
• Lemonade: https://www.lemfi.com/
• Bank of America: https://www.bankofamerica.com/
• Nubank achieves a world record with more than 7 million people participating in NuBolão in one month: https://building.nubank.com.br/nubank-achieves-world-record-with-nubolao
• Nu México carries out first financial transaction 20 meters under the depth of the sea: https://www.bnamericas.com/en/news/nu-mexico-carries-out-first-financial-transaction-20-meters-under-the-depth-of-the-sea
• David Vélez on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-v%C3%A9lez-1004875
• Cristina Junqueira on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crisjunqueira
• Edward Wible on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamedwardwible
• Sequoia Capital: https://www.sequoiacap.com/
• Churrascaria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churrascaria
• Nubank’s real foundation: our culture and values: https://building.nubank.com.br/nubank-culture-and-values/
• Working Backwards Press Release Template and Example: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/working-backwards-press-release-template-example-ian-mcallister/
• Sean Ellis test: https://productcoalition.com/using-sean-ellis-test-for-measuring-your-product-market-fit-c8ac98053c2c
• How to know if you’ve got product-market fit: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-know-if-youve-got-productmarket
• Reid Hoffman o